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I think that when you die, there is nothing. You don't feel, you don't hear, you don't see, you don't smell, and you certainly don't think. Death is your brain and body ceasing to function. What is death like for a squirrel? Or a fish? And why would/should it be any different for us? The fact that some of us think we are a special species does not make us one.

Funny, when I was a christian, I used to think that animals went to heaven too. When I was "corrected" about this, I began to wonder what made us feel so special from the rest of creation to say that humans got to have a soul but animals didn't.

Among many other things, that's one of the ideas that made me the atheist I am today.

I'm interested in the process of brain death and the possible idea of some sort of relative lucid death dream (since a dream lasts around 3 seconds synaptically but in your head seems to last for hours.. There is evidence of it kinda I guess with near death experiences) But after the synapses drain.. I would guess that would be lights out... The last great experiment right?

Well, best case scenario, in my own opinion, is that you get reincarnated an keep on living as someone or something else...worst case? You A: Burn in some horrible Hell for all Eternity, or B) Stop exiting. You won't care whether or not you're still there.

We can come up with all sort of scenarios of what happens after death, assuming that something happens at all. It's a nice thought experiment, but until there's any proof, it's just speculation, so anything goes... that is, as long as we don't start killing each other about who's right about it.

Me, I still haven't made up my mind. Perhaps those final seconds our brain is active become an eternity inside our minds, until we finally come to terms with our current state and decide to switch off, or perhaps something else happens.

Part of me hopes that the pineal glan releases a load of psychoactive and you Begin tripping, and since in the dreamlike state time usually doesn't flow normally it lasts indefinately, though not after your death but the instant before. After your dead it's lights out, that's it.

If you by death mean “end of life” then there will obviously be no more life. You have to survive your own death!

If by life you mean “the physical entity that is ‘I’ ” then obviously there will be no more life after the end of “the physical entity that is ‘I’ ”.

If, on the other hand, you by ‘I’ mean a dualistic view and that ‘I’ is a separate immaterial part in the physical entity then we have to solve the Cartesian Mind Body problem.

But to hold it simple. What if…

In a very near future we have solved the problem with body parts and donor organs with stem cells – we grow new parts and organs. And just for the fun of it, let’s take a future Darwin Award nominee and save him after the “Big Crash” and we replace all his damaged organs and limbs and … you know – Everything! Except the brain that caused him all his problem and now for his final act! Tadaa! He heard about ECT (electro convulsion therapy) and in his last wisdom wondered if a reboot would help him from not being a future candidate for the Darwin’s Award. Zaaap!

Luckily, we now have an empty physical entity that will take you out of your total paralyzed state, by transferring your brains content to the Darwin nominee. When you once again are shovelling pizza in your face, think about this – am ‘I’ (your soul) in your old body or in your new?

Did your soul become “a hazy, dream like state” because your old body “died” or is it “clear, and awake” in your “new physical entity”.

Don't try to "understand" death, because we understand things in light of our experiences.

But death isn't an experience. DYING is an experience for all who aren't killed instantaneously. There is no experience after death because there is nothing going on after death to have an experience.

The closest we can get is to experience the dying of others, noticing that when they are gone, they are completely gone, except for the after effects of their life, by which I mean the good and bad they caused, their children, and so on.

In my view, there is no ‘after death’ in a phenomenal sense unless you include the process of dying in the definition. After all, there is no centre in the brain, no Cartesian Theatre, as it were. Therefore, there is no self to remain after life has run out of the last cell – particularly the brain – in your body.

Do I know for sure? No. Do I fear death as the end of life? No. On the contrary, I hope so. I do not want to live for ever.